


Reunion

by BleedingCoffee



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: FMAWeek2015, Royai - Freeform, Young Royai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-25
Updated: 2015-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-19 12:02:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3609405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingCoffee/pseuds/BleedingCoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy returns to visit his teacher after graduation to learn Flame Alchemy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> For FMAWeek2015 Day 5 Prompt: Reunion.

Reunion

* * *

 

 

"You're not bad."

 

Roy Mustang tried to ignore the old General who used to be a close friend of Madam Christmas. He was visiting Central on some business, a General Grumman, who seemed stuck in East City until retirement from what he gathered. However right now he was one of those adults who knew nothing about holding conversations with teenagers other than the typical 'How's school?' question. Roy moved his rook and leaned back in his chair.

  
  


Grumman grinned. "Not bad at all. Say, have you considered going into the military? You've got a head for strategy and tactics."

  
  


Roy watched him move his piece almost without looking at the board. He wanted to feel good that a Major General was winning every game against him, a seventeen year old kid, but he was more annoyed that this old guy was watching his foster Mom and winking at her than anything. "I am studying to be an alchemist, which is what the first two hours of our conversation was about."

  
  


"Well, we've been playing chess for two hours and you're still coming up with new plays against me. I'm impressed. The military can use someone like you."

  
  


Roy noted how he ignored his statement about alchemy and just reiterated his statement. "I am studying with Master Hawkeye. I am just home for the holiday."

  
  


"The military academy is free. " Grumman said casually. "Get yourself an education in addition to working towards your state certification and the world will open up for you."

  
  


"I sincerely doubt that anything opens up for me as a dog of the military, except my kennel door when they want me to leave."

  
  


Grumman burst into laughter. "Well it sounds like you have been learning from Master Hawkeye after all!"

  
  


Roy moved a pawn forward. He looked up at Madam Christmas who was busy cleaning the bar and pretending she wasn't listening to the two of them. He wanted to ask the General how he knew Hawkeye, but he could tell the old man was just trying to lure him into asking. He wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of that, so he said nothing.

  
  


"What do you want to do with yourself, boy?" Grumman asked and watched the kid look back at him. He was sharp for a seventeen year old kid, but still ridiculously naive. He was intelligent but lacked the real world experience he needed to be something great. If Hawkeye had his way, the kid would stay cooped up in that house of his until it collapsed in on itself. "What do you plan to do with your life?"

  
  


He _hated_ that question. He was seventeen, how the hell was he supposed to know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life? So he repeated everything he had already said during their conversation, just in concise sentences to see if the General would catch on to how much he was annoying him. "Right now I am focused on my studies. Once the holidays are over I will go back to my apprenticeship. That is the extent of my plans. I do not know how long it will take for me to master what I am being taught, ergo planning for a future seems like setting myself up for disappointment."

  
  


"Are you sure there isn't a girl you're thinking about?" Grumman smirked.

  
  


Roy bristled with annoyance. When he came home the girls at Christmas's had teased him about that and Madam had also hinted that maybe he found a new girlfriend while he was away. For a group of people who had raised him to appreciate and respect women, they should have known he wouldn't throw away his values just because there happened to be a female living in the same house. He respected Master Hawkeye and would not breech the professional contract by pursuing his daughter while in his home for studies. He also would never reduce Riza to a mere 'available' girl who happened to be accessible. He respect her, she was a friend and she was just a kid. Yes, a kid who was way too wise for her age and had too much responsibility on her shoulders, but still a kid. He wanted to help her and show her that there was a world outside Hawkeye's house if she ever wanted to explore it. "A friend and nothing more than that. If you know my foster mother nearly as well as you boast, than you know she raised me to be a gentleman. To respect woman and understand that even in an establishment such as this that these girls are choosing this occupation. That this world needs more men who don't objectify women."

  
  


"Wow." Grumman moved his knight. "Surely you don't expect to be popular with that kind of talk."

  
  


"I don't want to be popular, I want to be a good human being who protects the people I care about and this country. I want to help people." He sat up straight and moved his queen forward. He wanted to help people like the shy and reclusive Riza who didn't deserve to be shut away because her mother died. He wanted to show her that the role she accepted wasn't the only one she had available to her, even if he respected her filial piety. He would have done that for any of the girls that worked here, because that was how he was raised.

  
  


"And here I was going to see if you were interested in marrying my granddaughter...in a few years that is. I mean after you graduate the academy." Grumman made his play and smiled. "Checkmate."

  
  


"I'm seventeen, I'm not interested in getting married or arranged marriages." Roy growled. "I also have not expressed any interest in the military. Clearly General you must be hard of hearing or not listening to a word I said."

  
  


"Oh I listened, I just was curious how long you were going to hold your tongue and bite back that anger." Grumman chuckled. "I think if you're really interested in helping people you'll reconsider the academy instead of hiding in a house waiting for people to come to you, you'd travel and help people all over Amestris. Certainly you’d like to protect the people you love? We live in a military state Roy, being a part of the army helps you direct the military's interest to the people who need it most."

  
  


Roy crossed his arms and studied the board. He really wanted to beat this old man at his game, but he didn’t play chess enough to really be phenomenal at it. Occasionally playing retired military personnel in Central Park was hardly good enough to beat this officer who probably just spent his days playing in his office. Still, he had to admit to himself that he was playing distracted, that part of what Grumman was saying was sinking in. He really knew, deep down that alchemy wasn’t going to be enough to make a living.

  
  


He had seen that at Master Hawkeye’s every time a visitor came to the house to request assistance. Sure there were occasional people who paid, but most bartered. Hawkeye’s house was evidence alone that independent alchemist wasn’t the best occupation. Sure state alchemists made excellent money, research alchemists who had their work to sell to the government could cash occasionally, but the average citizen who mastered alchemy was more of an oddity.

  
  


He knew from the way that Hawkeye treated him and most visitors that he was only taking students and odd jobs because he had to. So what help was that _really_ to the people? If he only took jobs and taught students to fund his research....what good was that to anyone, especially Riza. Why did she have to live without so much and work so hard because her father refused to do more than private research? Did he want to live like that? Just hoping to get by, or did he want to have a steady paycheck and afford to live well and help others? He glanced over at Grumman as he reset the board and grudgingly said, “I’ll humor you. What benefits would there be to joining the military?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Grumman said and grinned.

* * *

 

Madam Christmas couldn't stop fussing with her son on the day of his graduation from the military academy. He was handsome and all grown up standing before her in a crisp clean dress uniform with his formal hat under his arm. She couldn't believe the years passed by so quickly or that her Roy Boy would be leaving so soon for his new post, thankfully nowhere near the ongoing war in Ishval. She patted his cheek one more time before letting go and giving him the chance to socialize with his friends if he so desired. He adored the attention from her which was the reason she got away with it. “I'm proud of you son.”

 

Roy gave her a kiss on the cheek and a warm smile. “Thank you for everything. Without you I would have never made it this far.”

 

“Your parents would be proud of you too. That goes without saying.” She said and choked back a rise of emotions that desperately wanted to keep under wraps. She didn't need rumors of her crying over her foster son circulating, people would think she went soft. “Well, now what?”

 

“I'm planning to visit Master Hawkeye and see if he'll finish teaching me flame alchemy.” Roy admitted and toyed with his cap as he thought about the reception he would get by showing up in uniform. “I have submitted my application for state certification but I lack the impressive credentials to make it very far along in the process. I'm afraid without a specialty, I'm just another alchemist. They have enough of those, no reason to allow a soldier like me to stay home in a research facility when they need men at the front.”

 

“I thought you said he was opposed to the military having access to his research?” She asked as they walked through the crowds of celebrating cadets to where she parked her car. “You're a representative of the military now, son, I don't think your former apprenticeship with him is going to mean much.”

 

“I knew when I chose this path four years ago that there was a chance he would refuse to teach me any more. I've studied on my own and made some progress but it's a long way from being applicable to anything. Though it's excellent knowledge for diagnosing problems in internal combustion engines.” He smiled and she nudged him, he had been the one to do all the repair work on her car in the past few years.

 

“You've just been commissioned a Lieutenant.” She said. “Why in such a rush to get promoted?”

 

He ran his hand through his hair to ruffle it back up from the slicked back state he had it in for the ceremony. “Major and State Alchemist has its perks. If I really want to help people, it will bet better to move forward with the advancement now then be a Lieutenant in some outpost for the rest of my life. My life is here in Central and I'd like to keep it that way. You, Central Library, all the latest technological and scientific advances...all here in Central.”

 

“You say that now.” She grunted. “But as soon as you find a girl that catches your eye you're going to forget all about me.”

 

He rolled his eyes. “You've been saying that for years. You even expected me to run off with Master Hawkeye's daughter.”

 

“Son, I just read between the lines of what you were telling me.” She snorted. “Your phone calls, letters, vacations...every other word out of your mouth was about Riza.”

 

“She's an incredible girl.” Roy felt his cheeks warm up at as his mother got that teasing tone to her voice. “She was just a kid and I was proud of her as a friend and enjoyed spending time with her. There was a lot about country life that a city boy like me needed to learn.”

 

“She's not a kid anymore.” Chris pulled out a cigarette and lit it as soon as they passed through the front gates of the academy. “And you're not some lanky teenager who only knows how to read books and tend bar. I'm in the business of attraction and I've seen this coming for a while now.”

 

Roy looked away and pretended like it was the wind blowing cigarette smoke in his eyes and not because of an embarrassed flush to his cheeks. Leave it to his Mom to still find a way to fluster him about a girl he hadn't seen in four years. “Sorry to disappoint you but I'm just going to visit Master Hawkeye to talk about his research and not his daughter.”

 

“Just bring protection.” Chris said as they reached her car and she handed him the keys. “Don't trust that stuff you buy in the train station bathroom or whatever that backwoods general store sells. I'm too young to be a grandmother.”

 

Roy stumbled on his spit and words, too surprised by her forward statement _in public_ to formulate an adult response. He expected this in the confines of her bar, but never in the street in broad daylight. He just settled for blurting out an appalled , “MOM!”

 

She ignored his yelp of protest as she got into the car. He politely closed the door for her as she rummaged around in her purse. He got in a few seconds later, clearly no longer willing to linger at the academy now that his mother was talking about sex within earshot of his classmates. She grinned as she found what she was looking for and handed it to him. “Here's the good stuff.”

 

Roy closed his eyes as Chris slapped three condom packets into his hand and folded his fingers over it. “Mother.”

 

“Roy Boy, you're a young, handsome gentleman in uniform...”

 

“Mother!” He said as she shoved his closed hand over to his chest, indicating she wanted him to put the condoms away now so he didn't forget them. “I told you that there was nothing like that between Riza and I. We're just friends.”

 

“Fine.” She said and let go of his hand. “Still, you're going to need them eventually.”

 

He put the condom packets in his inside pocket and looked across the street to where Maes was taking pictures with the his parents and the entire extended Hughes family. His best friend having a normal graduation party instead of....whatever his mother expected him to be doing. He started the car and started to drive home where they would begin to get ready for the huge party she planned for the evening. He couldn't help but wonder, what Riza would look like now.

 

Maybe she was married or maybe she moved out years ago. There was no guarantee he was even going to see her when he went to Master Hawkeye's again. Her relationship with her father had never been the best and he almost hoped she wouldn't still be there. So he drove home and wished he had stayed in contact with her, it would have been nice to keep in touch since he knew she really didn't have many friends. He sighed, he simply didn't want to admit to himself that he had been wrapped up in moving forward with his life and couldn't find the time to write a simple letter. Every free moment he had was spent with his books, trying to find the secrets of flame alchemy on his own...hoping that if he showed progress Hawkeye would find him worthy of his legacy.

 

Still, he couldn't help but wonder what Riza was up to.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

It was an exhausting train ride to the town where the Hawkeye's lived as the train stopped for cattle on the tracks twice and he was seated next to a family of six who wanted to invade his space as much as possible. Initially they asked polite questions about him being in uniform and if he was being deployed or on furlough, then the father of the family tried to draw him into political debate. The mother had to tell him about everyone they ever knew that had been in the military, saw a soldier or even worn the color blue. Then the oldest girl started asking questions about if he had a girlfriend. He should have said yes but he answered honestly and swore he saw her pupils turn into little hearts.

 

So now he had a migraine, a home address and a love letter in his pocket as he set foot on the train platform. He didn't linger, afraid that if he didn't disappear from view that the family would follow him and keep talking. The town of Frenau was just like he remembered it which was not a good thing. Very little had changed and no improvements had been made, the town was probably stuck in time...a vintage glimpse into yesteryear just like the postcards they sold at the train station. Those hadn't changed either, as he was quite sure he had been the only one who ever bought them.

 

Roy quickly trotted down the stairs of the train station on his way to the General Store. He knew that he could hire someone to drive him out to the Hawkeye's from there, someone always had a horse and wagon hitched and ready to run errands. He walked across the street and nodded his head at some ladies who he caught looking at him, they giggled and waved in response. Four years ago he just was some kid that didn't even warrant a second glance, but now he seemed to get everyone's attention. He entered the store, the bell on the door alerted the clerk to his presence and he let it slam behind him. “Hello?”

 

“Yes!” A man burst through the curtain separating the store from the back room. “What can I get you....sir?”

 

The man looked at him and cocked an eyebrow. He didn't recognize him and it was a rare occasion that military personnel came through this remote town. Roy walked up to the counter and smiled. “Mr. Price? I'm sure you don't remember me but I used to come here often to use your phone. I apprenticed with Master Hawekye and...”

 

“Mustang?” Mr. Prince asked surprised. “Well I'll be damned. You grew up.”

 

“Yes sir.” Roy said and looked at the clock on the wall. He really wanted to get to the Hawkeye residence soon, if he was rejected he wanted to catch the last train back to Central when it came through. “Do you still rent out your wagon to travelers? I'm in need of a ride to visit my teacher.”

 

Price nodded. “Yeah, I'll sent Jimmy out to hitch the old mare. Does Hawkeye know you're coming?”

 

“No sir, I thought this would be a conversation best had in person.”

 

“Oh...I see.” Price grinned. “Well, Miss Hawkeye is a sweet girl even if she's a little much for the boys around here to handle. It will be nice to see her get out of that house before it falls down around her.”

 

Roy blushed. “No sir, I'm here to talk with my teacher about my apprenticeship.”

 

“Oh.” Price said and gave him a smile anyway. “Well wearing that uniform will probably get you thrown out on your ass pretty quick. You might want to reconsider which Hawkeye you're going up there to see.”

 

“Thanks for the advice.” Roy mumbled as the man went into the back room to call for his son. As he recalled Jimmy was around his age last time he had been here. He was sure he could expect some similar chatter from him. Great.

 

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Roy had never talked so much in his life, the day had set a new personal record in that regard. Jimmy Price was almost as bad as the people on the train. Roy cleared his throat and interrupted his story about wool shortages due to the war and the price of corn. “I can walk from here.”

 

Jimmy looked over his shoulder into the back of the wagon, “Are you sure? It's not a big deal to go up the hill and drop you off.”

 

Roy could hear the mare groan as she looked at the road that winded through a grove of trees to the hill beyond. “No, I need the exercise. I've been sitting on the train all day and I need a walk.”

 

“OK, well I'll wait here for you.” Jimmy said as he brought the wagon to a halt and Mustang jumped off. “Give the mare some water and unhitch her while you go talk to that old bastard.”

 

“Sounds good.” Roy said and quickly started to walk up the road. It would be a mile or so but he welcomed the opportunity to stretch his legs and get away from chatty companions. The road was more rutted than he remembered and he could see where some of it had washed out next to the creek, but overall the walk was familiar as if he had been here yesterday. Riza used to ride the plow horse she had to town bareback since they didn't have money for a saddle. Roy's first experience trotting along this road behind her on the back of Gypsy was not a good one. He bounced along for a good distance, arms wrapped around the slim body of the little girl in front of him...hands clenching what he could of the horse's thin mane. She swore that the canter would be smoother and easier to sit, however he never made it past the transition from trot to canter as Gypsy launched into the next gait and he rolled right off the side of her. He grinned at that memory, that day he was pretty happy the dirt road was muddy.

 

He slung his backpack on and prepared to start jogging. One good thing about the military academy was that he was prepared to jog miles with his gear on at any moment, and he was hoping to stay as fit as possible in case he was deployed. So he trotted along the rutted road, skipping over the pot holes and enjoying the view. Before long he was at the Hawkeye homestead and the house seemed to be much worse than he remembered it. The porch roof was no longer there, patches were over the siding where the porch had been attached. The metal roof sat in the yard and he assumed the wood had been burned for heat a while ago.

 

He noticed the split rail fence was still intact, Riza was very picky about how her animals were kept. The house could be a pile of rubble, but she'd still have a well maintained barn. His eyes were drawn to the garden where this season's corn was already a decent height. He finally made his way around to the side door since the front porch looked rotten and impassible. He frowned, it appeared that Master Hawkeye simply intended to let the house fall down. Never mind that this was all he had to leave to Riza when he passed, Master Hawkeye still couldn't be bothered to care for the house. He knocked on the door and waited. He hoped that Hawkeye would at least allow him to stay for a while and fix things, his alchemy was advanced enough for that.

 

The door opened and Roy stood up parade ground straight. “Hello, Master Hawkeye.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

That day he wasn't expecting to run back to Jimmy's wagon so fast, but he also wasn't expecting Master Hawkeye to drop dead five minutes after he walked into his study. The entire mile run he kept asking himself if he had caused the man to fall over his desk, coughing up his lungs and life. Was his return so much of a surprise? Was he really that upset at him for joining the army? Was he really that disappointed in him for becoming a 'dog of the military'? Did he really mean that he wanted him to look after Riza?

 

The questions were still rattling around in his head three days later at Master Hawkeye's funeral. Roy took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as they stood at the cemetery and watched the diggers shovel dirt over Berthold Hawkeye's grave. He didn't know what to say, but thankfully Riza spoke first.

 

“He's been sick for a long time.” She said and wished she was more emotional over the death of her father but somehow she felt like he had died years ago and was just waiting on his body to quit working. “Don't blame yourself. Thank you for taking care of the funeral arrangements, I didn't know what to do.”

 

He smiled, she had always had an uncanny knack for reading him. He glanced over at her. His Mother had been right, Riza did grow up. He blushed and ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the muscles on the back of his neck, a nervous habit he could never get rid of. “He was my teacher, I'm glad I could help.”

 

“He didn't teach you what you came here to learn.” She said and looked up at him. For a second their eyes met and he looked away nervously.

 

“Well, he acknowledged that I mastered everything he taught me but added that it was a waste of his time to teach someone who would dedicate their life to the military.” He shrugged. “Then right before he died he said that he wanted to make sure I wouldn't use it for power before he passed it on to me. That and he had no more time to teach me. Your father was frustrating to the very end.”

 

She looked at him and how he avoided looking at her. There was more he wasn't saying. Did her father reveal where his notes were located?

 

“What will you do with yourself now?” He asked needing to change the direction of the conversation. He didn't want to talk about Hawkeye asking him to watch over her, Riza never needed anyone's help and she would resent the implication that she needed to be looked after. Still, he needed to know she would be OK.

 

“I 'll get by. I'm not uneducated, I'll figure out something.” She didn't want to admit that she felt liberated, no longer tied to the house anymore. No longer obligated to stay and take care of her father or his home. It was a horribl ething to be thinking about as they put him in the ground.

 

“If you need help...” He said and reached into his pocket for a recruitment card. The military was big on providing those to their officers and he always had plenty on hand. Unfortunately, he had shoved the condoms from his Mom into the same pocket and almost handed Riza _those_ instead of a business card. He could feel his cheeks surge with the red of embarrassment of an almost incident before he handed the card to her. “If you need anything, please don't hesitate to contact me. You can call Military HQ and they can transfer your call to me.”

 

She took the card and looked at it. “How long will you be there?”

 

“In the military?” He asked. “Most likely for the rest of my life.”

 

“The rest of your life?” She asked and he nodded.

 

“Yeah, I'm in Central right now because I've applied to the State Alchemy program and am working on research. If I don't pass the exam or am not good enough for certification, I might get transferred. I'm confident I can pass the exam, just not sure I'll get further than the written portion without a specialty. However Military HQ should be able to tell you where I've gone and get you connected to me.”

 

“Transferred?” She said and images of the newspaper headlines crossed her mind. He could be shipped out to war. “Don't get killed.”

 

“Don't jinx me.” He said and glanced over at her. The same girl, no woman, who told him to hold on tight or he'd fall right off Gypsy's back when she went to canter. “I can't promise that. It's an occupation hazard you know.”

 

“Why are you doing it then?” She asked, hoping they could talk like they used to. Even after all these years, she wished they could just fall back into that comfortable place where they had been. It would be nice to have a friend again.

 

“I want to protect my country and the people in it. If I can't use alchemy for the people as a State Alchemist, then I can still serve my country in uniform with these hands any way I can. I can still help people and that's what I intend to do. I had hoped Master Hawkeye would teach me more, but he didn't think I was ready.” He looked away and rubbed his neck again when he saw the way she looked at him. Like he was doing something selfless and wonderful. However his last few months with Master Hawkeye made him see that alchemy wasn't enough, because you couldn't survive financially helping people when you had to provide for a family yourself. So he looked a little harder at that General Grumman's offer, how the military did have the resources to help him achieve his goals. He could help people as a job and even do alchemy on the side for free since he already had a paycheck coming. He cleared his throat and realized he still had Riza's attention . “I'm sorry, I must be boring you with my naive dreams. This isn't the time to talk about that. Why don't we head back to the house and see if there is anything I can help you with before I leave? I have a week before I need to report to my new post, so I can help you fix the house if you want.”

 

“You really want to use alchemy...to help the people?” She asked. When he was an apprentice it was more about conquering the art, even if he said his end game was to use it as a service to others. It was a puzzle then and he was still finding his way. Now he was already walking down the road where he wanted his life to lead and he was different. He grew up and it was evidently not just a physical change.

 

“Yes.” He sighed. “Even if your father thought I was just repeating the same old rhetoric everyone chanted. I'm sure he heard that a lot over the years. Still, it's the truth. I want to do something with my life and this is going to be how I do it.”

 

“My father...didn't take his secrets with him to the grave.” She said and watched the gravediggers throw their shovels in the Price's well used wagon. “He coded them. He said that an average alchemist would never figure it out.”

 

“So he wrote it down?” Roy asked, genuinely surprised. He would have never expected that from the old paranoid man.

 

“Not on paper.” She said in a hushed whisper as the memories of that pain and awful experience came back to her. “Mr. Mustang, that dream of yours....I'd love to see it come true. A dream where alchemy helps people and our country protects them. Can I trust you with my back to make sure it comes true, where people can be happy?”

 

He heard her voice fluctuate and figured it was a hard memory to digest. Her father had spent his life working on this research and never used it for anything. Not even to make a better life for her. So her strange wording didn't register with him until later that night when he saw how Master Hawkeye recorded his notes.

 

That night they both shed tears over the life of Berthold Hawkeye because of the scars he left on them. Roy stood in that study looking at a tattoo carved into the back of a beautiful young woman who felt it her obligation to carry on his legacy. The familiar runes and ancient symbols etched into her body as if she was just a piece of chattel to her own father. A father who gave him the responsibility of watching over her, as if that man had any right to give her to anyone. So he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her and cried. Because he had fail his friend. He wasn't there for her to lean on when she was being coerced into accepting this brand . He wasn't here, in this room, for her father to choose to pass it on to him instead of burdening her with it. He had failed her and now she was condemned to a life with him haunting her, unable to every be rid of the memories or responsibility. Unable to ever bury him because he was always on her back.

 

He wanted to dig the old bastard up and beat him with a shovel. However he felt like he was to blame because he had presented himself as the candidate for the next flame alchemist and then left to pursue a career that he knew Hawkeye disapproved of. The years he spent studying had earned him little respect, so when he was looking at a purpose in life he knew it wasn't going to be found here. Hawkeye made it clear he wasn't good enough, that he wasn't ready. At the time, it wounded him. Hurt his pride and made him want to be stronger and more capable. Another reason he joined the military. Still, he was standing here wondering if he made the right choice. Sure the old man was dying, desperate and clearly out of his mind but he should have kept in touch. Then he felt her hand on his and a gentle squeeze.

 

“Don't blame yourself.” She said and he hugged her tighter.

 

“How could he do this to you? Why...did you let him?”

 

“I let him.” Was all she could answer and tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked at the table where it had happened. “So, promise me you'll learn it and use it for good. Please, Roy...promise me that something good will come of this and this legacy isn't just of his insanity? You can decode it, can't you?”

 

“I think so but...”

 

“No.” She squeezed his hand. “You will use this and you'll be better than him. You already are better than him.”

 

So he spent the week taking notes, going through Hawkeye's study and repairing the home where he could. He made a promise to come back in a few months when he could get another furlough and they would work on utilizing Flame Alchemy together. He'd decode, process and learn from the notes he had taken, but he'd need time. When he returned he'd have working theories and they could work together making something of them.  _They_ were going to work on this because they were both invested in it and she needed to see the product as much as he did. 

 

When he was preparing to board that train to go back to Central, she actually had to shove him to make him move his feet. He didn't want to leave. It wasn't about leaving her alone or what happened when he left last time, it was a surge of dread because he was leaving her. He was more excited to come back in three months to see her again as he was to show her he made progress with his research. This time he made a promise to come back, but to also write and not lose touch. He turned to look at her and had to admit that maybe his mother was right. There was something a little more than friendship brewing here, but it wasn't the right time. So as he opened his mouth to say goodbye, he was surprised when she stepped forward, pulled him down by the lapel and kissed him.

 

“I'll see you soon.” Riza said as she leaned away from him, the words more of a question than a statement. Her amber eyes searching his for an indicator, needing to know if she had misread him or was going to be met with rejection. He pulled her back and gave her a goodbye kiss of his own and Riza realized that he had a lot more practice than she did.

 

The train whistle blew and he could hear the conductor telling him to hurry up. “I'll write you.”

 

“Give me a picture.” She said quickly.

 

He fished into his pocket as the train started to move. He had shown her a picture that Maes's family had taken at their graduation. She had asked about his friends and he had that one in his pocket from when Hughes had driven him to the train station for this trip. Unfortunately, it was in the same pocket as the condoms and business cards and when he took it out in a rush he grabbed everything. He didn't notice however as panic had overtaken him as the train was leaving and he had no other alternatives to get back to Central to report to duty on Monday. It would be bad to be AWOL on his first day. So he kissed her a quick goodbye, pressed everything in to her hand and ran to jump on the train before it was completely away from the platform. He waved to her and she waved back, then he saw her sort through the assortment in her hands and his eyes grew wide. He felt in his pocket and groaned.

 

_Thanks Mom._

 

He saw her cover her mouth with her hand, the way she used to when she tried not to laugh at something inappropriate he said. As the train pulled away she pocketed the cards, photo and condoms and waved with her free hand. She always did say she was jealous of how his mother doted on him. From the first day when she dropped him off for his apprenticeship and interrogated Master Hawkeye on his skills and accommodations to the weekly phone calls at Price's General Store. He smiled as he thought about them in the past and present and how Madam Christmas knew from day one that this would happen.

 

_Thanks Mom._

 

Now that the train was far enough away he finally entered the car and found a seat. The conductor eyeing him for his stunt, but clearly not willing to say much because of the uniform. He had already given the man his ticket, so he made his way to his seat and sat down. He had a long ride ahead of him and a lot of information to work through. The sooner he figured it out, the sooner he could return to see her.

 

 

 


End file.
